It was established in 1910, and exploited a large deposit in the southeast of the country to become one of the largest tin producers in the world.

The Compagnie Géologique et Minière des Ingénieurs et Industriels belges (Géomines) was founded in 1910.

[4] Géomines depended on Foraky, a subsidiary of the state-controlled Comité Spécial du Katanga (CSK), for much of the work.

Foraky charged high prices for its work, thus transferring profit from Géomines to CSK.

In 1920 the transition to a full-scale operating company required 12 million francs of additional capital.

[5] In 1932 Geomines was building a reservoir on the Lukushi River to contain 10,000,000 cubic metres (350,000,000 cu ft) of water to support tin mining operations at Manono.

[3] In March 1967 it was announced Géomines operations were being transferred to the Société Géologique et Minière du Congo (GEMICO), which was 50% owned by Congolese.